U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/839,723, filed Aug. 16, 2007, titled Mobile Wireless Medication Management System, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,538,775, issued Sep. 17, 2013, provides a medication management system employing mobile devices and an imaging technology so that a user is able to show a pill to be taken to the system, and the system can then identify the medication. Patient histories are available to an administrator, including various vital signs as measured by the system. Images may also be taken of the patient, provider, medication container or the like. While the system professes to ensure adherence to a protocol, the system only provides such help if requested by a user. There is in fact no particular manner in which to ensure actual adherence or ingestion of the medication, or the relationship of adherence to the efficacy or safety of the drug over time. When requiring adherence to a predetermined protocol for a clinical trial, this is particularly relevant. Similarly, there is no mention of non-pill based medications. Furthermore, there is an assumption that a medication has been already trained to be recognized by the system, an assumption that may cause a problem given the number of different possible medications, including generic medications, that may be taken by an individual in accordance with a particular prescription.
The inventors of the present invention have determined that prior art systems fail to describe the recognition of a previously untrained medication by a medication system.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an apparatus that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.